Hey, sorry I'm a bit late in posting this chapter. I've had a serious dose of the post holiday blues this week.

If you ever get the chance, go see Sarah McLachan live. She's absolutely brilliant.

Thank you again to everybody that reviewed Chapter 9.

Chapter Ten

"Have you been here all night?"

"Yeah." Adam rubbed his eyes, trying to focus on the screen in front of him. "Just been working through this threat intel." He lifted his cup, putting it down when he realised, halfway to his mouth, that it was empty. Easier to stay, easier to work through the night, than deal with his parents unspoken accusations.

Nathan sat down next to him, passing him a fresh cup of coffee. "Its going to take them a while to get over what happened, Adam."

Adam shook his head. "No Nathan. They're never going to get over what happened, and they're never going to stop blaming me for it." He remembered her funeral. His parents, their family, her friends, all united in their grief, clinging to each other, comforting each other. Leaving him alone in his grief.

Only Michelle had looked for him. Only Michelle, struggling with her own grief, her own guilt, had looked for him, hold told him how sorry she was. Only Michelle had been there for him.

She deserved his best. Deserved everything he could give her.

Nathan saw Adam's emotions play across his face and changed the subject before the silence became uncomfortable. "Did you get anything from the intel you were working off?"

"There's a criminal prosecutor from Cape Town in LA to take possession of a prisoner. Kevin van der Melde was caught trying to smuggle diamonds into LAX. Customs did a deal with the South African government."

"Does van der Melde have any connections to Fredericks?"

Adam nodded. "And apparently, Cronje has been trying to take Fredericks down for a while. He's got a few associates of his in prison, but no one has rolled on him yet."

"Two birds with one stone." Nathan whistled through his teeth. "You have been busy. Did you get any sleep?"

"No. Do you think he's going after them?"

"I think it's as good a lead as we have. Does Michelle know yet?"

"No." Adam stifled a yawn. "I wanted to be sure before I told her. She's been under enough pressure, we all are. We cant afford another mistake." He couldn't afford another mistake, didn't think he could cope with another mistake. "Do you think...."

"Yeah, I think he's going to go after them. Then he's going to disappear, bury himself deep. This could be our only chance to get him."

"So what are we going to do?" He felt better, now that he knew Nathan at least agreed with him, tiredness forgotten, burned away by adrenalin and the feeling of a job well done

Nathan nodded towards Michelle's still dark office. He was surprised she wasn't in yet. He'd lost count of the number of evenings she had stayed late, the number of mornings she'd come in early. Thought of how tired she'd looked recently.

He sighed, knowing he was dumping more pressure onto her shoulders. "That's for her to decide."

xxxXXXxxx

She remembered how this had felt last time. The emptiness, the helplessness, the anger, the memories, tapered with sadness, the thoughts stained with blood, like ruined photographs.

It felt worse this time.

"Its not my fault." She closed her eyes, flinching as images of Alyson stung her eyes. "I had to do my job. Its not my fault."

It had been a long time since she had had a drink but she found herself craving one.

She looked at herself in the mirror. "It's not my fault, it's not my fault." She closed her eyes, wondering if a drink would help her sleep.

Ashley wandered over to her couch, covering herself with a throw. She picked up the TV remote, starting to flick through the channels. Hoping to find something she could use to bore herself to sleep. Mindless noise, mindless images to distract her from the memories threatening to overwhelm her.

At least this time she didn't have to face....

Her phone rang, startling her from the half sleep she had fallen into. She took a second to locate it, stared at it for another second. Then snatched it from the table in front of her.

"Webber."

"Ashley, its Michelle. We've had a break in the Fredericks case and I need you to come in."

Ashley ran her hand through her blond hair. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

xxxXXXxxx

This was ridiculous.

"I did what had to be done."

Tom wondered if Jack had ever felt like this, had ever felt responsible for the consequences of his actions.

He laughed bitterly. Of course he didn't. Jack Bauer just did his job, to hell with the guilt and the consequences, to hell with the people that got hurt. He didn't care as long as he got the job done, didn't care who he hurt. Strangers, friends, colleagues, none of that mattered to Jack Bauer.

What had been done to Alyson Rawlings, what she had done to herself, would not have cost Jack even a second thought.

He wasn't Jack.

"I did my job, Alyson." He closed his eyes, trying to explain his actions to her ghost. "I had to find Williams. You were all I had to use. I had to go rough on you. I had to break you. You understand, don't you?"

He saw her face again, her eyes closed, that sad beautiful smile on her face, her smile almost distracting attention from the horrific wounds on her wrists.

"I did my job."

This was so fucking ridiculous.

His phone rang, brutally irreverent to his guilt, to her memory.

He didn't look at the number as he picked it up. Who else would be calling him?

"Baker."

"We need you here Tom." Nathan's voice was quick and enthusiastic. "Adam turned something up last night. Michelle wants everybody in."

"What did he find?"

"A target. He thinks he knows who Fredericks' target is"

"I'll be right in Nathan." He hung up the phone and lifted his gun, slipping it into his holster. Staring at himself one last time in the mirror, making sure he had himself under control.

Making sure that he could do his job.

xxxXXXxxx

His group knew what they had to do. They knew the consequences if they didn't.

Kevin van der Melde knew too much about them, about their organisation, about Oliver Fredericks. Knew too much about them and was eager to cut as much time from his sentence as he possibly could.

William Cronje wanted Oliver Fredericks. Wanted him on trial, just to prove to the rest of the world that South Africa would not tolerate terrorists. To that end, he was even prepared to do a deal with Kevin van der Melde.

Fredericks knew what had to be done.

Cronje and van der Melde could not be allowed to thrash out a deal.

Both of them had to die. To kill just one left too many loose ends.

Both of them had to die.

Two birds with one stone.

xxxXXXxxx

Adam highlighted a picture on the display. "Kevin van der Melde. Smuggled diamonds from South Africa for Oliver Fredericks. He was caught coming through LAX with several million in uncut diamonds."

"Why does Fredericks want him dead?" Tom shuffled through van der Melde's file, reading his record.

"This man." Adam changed the image. "William Cronje. South African prosecutor. He offered van der Melde years off his sentence in exchange for information on Fredericks."

"So we have two targets. Cronje and the prisoner."

Michelle leaned forward. "Okay people, we've done a good job so far, but this is the big play. Take this guy down, and we've taken a major international terrorist down." 'Something I can use to get Hammond off our backs without having to play Natasha's game.'

"What's the plan?"

"Customs are making the exchange with Cronje in the Regan Hotel. Nathan, I want you and Ashley there." Michelle grinned suddenly, her teeth glinting in the dimly lit room. "Hope you've been nice to the waiting staff recently."

"What about back up?"

"We're going to have a delta team maintaining a perimeter. They'll be within reach. But we need to invite this guy in, make him think we don't know about him. Cronje is travelling with an armed bodyguard and he knows CTU will be involved. But you're going to be the guys on the ground. Tony's going to be co-ordinating the operation from here."

Tom shook his head. "I don't like this Michelle."

"We don't have a choice, Tom. We've got two targets, and we don't have that many resources or that much time. We have to stop Fredericks today."

"Okay. What do you want me to do?"

"Put a team together. You're going to be guarding van der Melde."

"What?" Adam was incredulous. "No, Michelle, we don't need to do that. We can just take can der Melde out of play...."

Michelle shook her head. "We cant do that, Adam. We need to draw Fredericks out into theopen. Van der Melde is the only lead we..." Her voice died abruptly in her throat. Remembering when Jack had said those words to her.

And what price those words had had.

She cleared her throat, forcing strength into her voice. "Any questions." She looked around the table. "This is the last play, people. Lets do this right."

Her phone rang as they were leaving. She waited until Nathan closed the door after him before she answered.

"CTU, Dessler."

"I'd like to speak to the Director." A deep male voice.

"I'm the Director, sir. How can I help you?"

"My name is George Rawlings. I understand you have my daughter in custody."

xxxXXXxxx

He was starting to feel like a hunted man.

Conversations died in corridors when he approached. People looked away from him, refusing to meet his eyes. People he had known, had counted on as allies, if not friends, avoiding him, refusing to talk to him.

He had become a liability, vulnerable.

Vulnerable and no one wanted to get caught in his death throes.

Brad Hammond gritted his teeth as he walked through the corridors towards his office. Natasha fucking Grey. He almost missed Chapelle. The man had been intolerable, a real pain in the ass. But he was an easier opponent, easier than Grey was proving to be. He could feel her dagger already buried in his back.

He threw the door of his office open and walked towards his private room. Not even glancing at Mary. He just needed some time alone. Some time by himself to find a way out of her trap, to plot his response.

"Sir."

He stopped with his hand on the handle of his private office. "What is it Mary?"

"Michael Jarode is waiting inside for you." His secretary was pale faced. "I didn't know what else to do."

"That's okay Mary. Can you get us some coffee please? Thank you." He waited until Mary left the office. Taking the time to prepare himself, compose himself.

Michael Jarode.

Natasha had finally played her ace card.

xxxXXXxxx

"I want to speak to my daughter, Director Dessler."

"I'm afraid that's not possible, Mr Rawlings."

"I know the Constitution, Director. My daughter has rights. I demand access to her. I want her to have access to a lawyer."

"Mr Rawlings, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you."

"What?" The sudden cold fear in his voice almost broke her heart.

"I'm afraid your daughter is dead, Mr Rawlings." Michelle braced herself for the impact of the man's grief.

"She cant be...she cant be dead." All the strength seemed to drain from Rawlings' voice, drained like blood from a cut. He sounded old and tired. "I spoke to her last night, she wouldn't tell me where she was. It took me until now to find her. How can she be dead?"

"She killed herself, Mr Rawlings"

"I was under the impression that my daughter was in custody, Director."

"She was..."

"Then how is it possible that she was able to kill herself?"

"She broke a glass, used it to cut her wrists." Michelle hesitated then continued. "I'm very sorry for your loss."

"What was she being held for?"

Michelle thought about telling him everything. That his daughter was a drug addict, that she had been whoring herself to feed her habit. That she had been stealing from her beloved father. That her tormentor had been using that money to fund terrorists.

She thought of the grief in Rawlings' voice and wondered what the job had made her that she would even think of adding to the man's grief.

"She was providing information that was helping us to track down a terrorist."

xxxXXXxxxx

"Is everybody ready? Is everything in place?"

"Yes." Adam checked the screens. "Tom and his team have picked up van der Melde. They're heading back to LA now."

"Good. Chloe, what about Nathan and Ashley?"

Chloe pressed the headset against her ear. "They're in place. Cronje's there. There's no sign of Fredericks yet."

"What about our guys?"

She pressed a button, changing the channel. "Delta Five is holding the perimeter. What do we do now, Tony?"

"The worst part. We wait."

xxxXXXxxx

He hated waiting for anything.

It played on his nerves. Pulling them taut, stretching them until they almost broke. He folded his hands in his lap, trying to conceal how much his hands were shaking.

He hated waiting.

He tried to think about something, anything else. Home. His wife. The case. Tried to read the paper. Anything to distract himself from this horrible waiting.

He sat there. Waiting.

Waiting for Oliver Fredericks to kill him.